Throughout her long reign, Queen Victoria loyally played the part of a constitutional sovereign. She chose her ministers, now from the Whigs (or "Liberals," as they began to be called), and now from the Tories (or "Conservatives"), whichever had a majority in the House of Commons. In this way Parliament, especially the House of Commons, came more and more to rule the country; and the old idea of George III., that the personal will of the King should rule, was very largely given up.
The long reign of Queen Victoria saw a constant succession of new inventions, which increased man's mastery over nature.
By Victoria's time, artificial gaslights had taken the place of the old whale-oil lamps, with which formerly the streets of London were dimly lighted. Gaslight was also generally used in shops, and in the better class of houses. It was not until her reign was two-thirds over that electric lighting came into use.
In 1814 George Stephenson, the son of a poor English miner, constructed a locomotive engine, which people called "Puffing Billy," on account of the noise which it made. Little by little the locomotive was improved, until Stephenson's "Rocket" could run at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. The first railway for passengers was opened in 1829. The year after Victoria became Queen, a railway was opened clear through from London to Liverpool, and it became possible to cover, in ten hours, a distance which had taken sixty hours by the fastest stage coach. The steamboat had already been invented, by Fulton in America (1807), and by Bell in Scotland (1812); and in 1838 vessels under steam power began to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The influence of these inventions, in changing all the conditions of life, was only second in importance to the introduction of machinery in manufacturing.
"Puffing Billy"
Formerly, the person who received a letter paid the postage, which varied with the distance. A letter from London to Scotland could cost more than a shilling (twenty-five cents) and poor people often could not afford to receive letters. In 1839, however, gummed postage stamps were introduced, with which the sender paid the postage; and in 1840 the rate was made one penny (two cents) for letters throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Since then cheap postage has spread all over the world, until in 1908 the rate was made two cents even to America. This cheapening of postage brought people closer together, and also aided the spread of information, through the circulation of cheap newspapers and magazines.
Of even greater importance was the introduction of the electric telegraph, at the beginning of Victoria's reign. An American, Samuel Morse, invented an electric telegraph in 1835; but, before he could patent his invention in Great Britain, two Englishman had worked out an invention of their own and patented it. Within a short time the whole country was covered with telegraph wires, and messages could be flashed in a moment's time from one end of it to another. In 1858, an electric cable was first laid, connecting Great Britain and America; but this soon broke, and it was not until 1866 that it became possible to send messages regularly between the Old World and the New. The telegraphs became the property of the government, in Great Britain, and are managed as a part of the Post Office. When the telephone was introduced, after 1880, this also passed largely into the hands of the government.
When Victoria had been Queen nine years, a great famine came upon Ireland, which caused the loss of thousands of lives, and led several million persons to emigrate from Ireland to the United States.
The famine was due to a failure of the potato crop, which furnished the chief food of the Irish people. After a cold and late spring, it began to rain. In some places, the sun was scarcely seen from the end of May till next spring. Here and there brown spots began to appear on the leaves of the potato plants. They grew black and spread, and soon whole fields were blighted. At night, a field might appear green and flourishing, and the next morning all be blight and decay. The food upon which the people depended to carry them through the winter rotted in the ground. The whole land was soon face to face with starvation.
For some years an "Anti-Corn-Law League" had been working in England to secure the repeal of the "Corn Laws," which laid heavy tariff duties on imported grain. They held great public meetings, they printed pamphlets, and they published bitter rhymes, like this:
"Avenge the plunder'd poor, Oh Lord!
But not with fire, but not with sword,—
Not as at 'Peterloo' they died,
Beneath the hoofs of coward pride.
Avenge our rags, our chains, our sighs,
The famine in our children's eyes!
But not with sword—no, not with fire!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Let them in outraged mercy trust,
And find that mercy they deny!"
Sir Robert Peel, who was now Prime Minister at the head of the Tory party, believed in free trade in everything except grain. As to grain, he believed that every country must raise its own food, or it could be starved out in war time. But now, the famine in Ireland showed him the necessity of free trade in grain also.
Sir Robert Peel
So, Peel carried through Parliament a measure repealing the Corn Laws (1846). Many of his followers deserted him on this measure, for cheaper grain meant less profits to the landlord class; but the Whigs aided him. This law made England a free-trade country; and it has remained such from that day to this. Soon after this, the Whigs and Protectionist Tories overthrew Peel's government, and he never regained power.
Since the overthrow of Napoleon, in 1815, Great Britain had fought several small wars in Asia and in Africa, but had not been at war with any European power. From 1854 to 1856, however, she fought Russia, in the "Crimean War," so called because it was fought mainly in the Crimea peninsula, in the Black Sea.
The cause of this war was the claims of Russia over Turkey, and the fears of England and France that, if they did not aid Turkey, Russia would become too powerful. The Czar of Russia was in the habit of speaking of Turkey as "the Sick Man" of Europe. By this, he meant that the government of Turkey was so weak that it must soon fall to pieces, and he believed that the great powers should plan beforehand what was to be done when this should happen. The other countries thought this was only a scheme of Russia to get possession of Constantinople, which would give it an outlet from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean. This would be especially bad for England, for it would threaten the security of her possessions in India. So, when Russia claimed the right to interfere in Turkey, to protect the Christians there (who were "Greek Christians," like the Russians), England and France encouraged the Sultan to resist. And when war broke out between Russia and Turkey, they sent their armies and fleets to the Sultan's assistance.
The Russians strongly fortified Sebastopol in the Crimea, and the English and French attacked it. The siege lasted for nearly a year, amid cholera, famine, and the winter weather. The Czar said that "Generals January and February" would be his strongest allies, and so it proved. The British army suffered terribly, and there was a great outcry at home because of mistakes made by the government.
For the first time women nurses were sent out to the army, and an English gentlewoman, named Florence Nightingale, won undying fame by the heroism and self-sacrifice which she showed in caring for the sick and wounded.
The most famous deed of all this war was the charge of the Light Brigade, about which Tennyson wrote one of his best known poems. Through the blunder of some officer, six hundred and seventy-three British horsemen were ordered to charge the whole Russian line.